Notes on pending bullpen move and Rickard

SAN DIEGO - The Orioles have an obvious roster move coming this week and one today that had been wide open to debate and speculation.

Maybe not quite as much anymore.

Catcher Caleb Joseph will join the team today in Seattle after catching on three consecutive nights at Single-A Frederick. The Orioles figure to activate him for Friday night's game against the Mariners, with backup Francisco Pena returning to Triple-A Norfolk.

Having Pena and Audry Perez in Norfolk could force Chris O'Brien back to Double-A Bowie. The trickle-down effect.

Making room today for Vance Worley seemed to be more complicated, especially with Mychal Givens eventually going on paternity leave. His wife is due July 11.

The Orioles could have optioned Givens now and recalled him after the birth. But the All-Star break starting on that date may factor into their decision.

There's another factor at work here.

Oliver Drake seems more likely to be optioned because he won't be available for a few days after working back-to-back games and producing disappointment results. He was lifted yesterday after two-thirds of an inning, with manager Buck Showalter forced to bring in Givens to record the final out in a 12-6 victory over the Padres.

Keeping Odrisamer Despaigne essentially would give the Orioles four long relievers if you also count Worley, T.J. McFarland and Dylan Bundy.

Optioning McFarland again would leave Zach Britton as the only left-hander in the bullpen. However, McFarland doesn't profile as a lefty specialist. He's used to consume innings, not match up.

Darren O'Day's return isn't imminent. The Orioles have more time to figure out how to make room for him as he slowly recovers from a strained hamstring.

Anyway, Drake is the favorite to be sent down later today. He's got a 9.53 ERA in 5 2/3 innings over four appearances.

Showalter said there will be at least one more made. The bullpen has tested his patience the past two games.

"We sure would have liked to have gotten that ninth inning pitched without having to get somebody else up," Showatler said, "but we weren't able to do it."

With the Orioles facing two left-handed starters in their four-game series in Seattle, Rule 5 pick Joey Rickard figures to crack the lineup twice in left or right field.

Rickard got the start in left field yesterday, with Mark Trumbo in right and Nolan Reimold forced to the bench without a designated hitter. The Orioles return to an American League ballpark tonight, allowing room for all three of them in the lineup.

Rickard hit .280 in 23 games April, but only .214 in 26 games in May. He had only two fewer plate appearances.

The league might have caught up to him. Or maybe he was leveling out after an insanely hot stretch that carried over from spring training and left his average at .350 on April 21.

Rickard endured a 4-for-33 stretch that lowered his average to .242, but he busted out by going 3-for-5 with a home run in a June 11 game in Toronto. He began yesterday batting .341/.370/.500 this month, going 15-for-44 with four doubles, a home run, four RBIs and nine runs scored. He was 0-for-5 yesterday with an RBI.

A young player referred to as "James Dean" by teammates wasn't just acting like a major leaguer.

"It's actually happened twice," Showalter said of the dry spells. "I was telling somebody the other day, just when you think he might kind of start showing some of the inexperience and things you might expect a guy to do, then he just gets right back on task. He kind of acts like guys do who have been in the big leagues. They have their moments where they kind of fall, but their track record allows you to stay with them. With Joey, you didn't know which way that was going.

"I think there's a couple times it looked like he was cooling off and what was he going to be? But he's got great work habits and he wants to be real good at this. He's going to be as good as he's capable of being. He always finds a way to impact our game. He can be 0-for-3, but with a big walk and make a couple good defensive plays. He's as good a baserunner as we've got, too. He's a nice weapon to have on the bench in National League games. He's given us some versatility when he doesn't play, coming in and do some things off the bench.

"We've really got four Rule 5 guys on the team if you look at it because Bundy's got all the properties of a Rule 5 guy. You have McFarland, you have (Ryan) Flaherty and you have Rickard. We've really got four. So we will be participating in the Rule 5 draft again this year."